Absentee Bid Information
Should you wish to submit an absentee bid, please contact us by email, fax, or phone and ask for an absentee bid sheet. If you wish, and if your browser and printer support it, you may print out the absentee bid form below and mail it or fax it back with your bids.

Absentee Bid Form (PDF)

Make sure that you review the Terms & Conditions of the Sale -- Click the link to make sure that you understand the details of the bidding contract.

Please review this document before placing an absentee bid - it should answer any questions that you may have regarding the absentee bid process. Thank you.

ABSENTEE BID CONDITIONS

PLEASE READ IF YOU ARE SUBMITTING ABSENTEE BIDS.

1. Important Note: Absentee bids are a service provided to our customers free of charge. Every effort is made to execute all absentee bids. However, you must know, that because of the hundreds and sometimes thousands of bids that must be processed just prior to an auction, it is inevitable that a few mistakes will occur. Your best protection is to be there in person, but if you cannot, you must understand that this is not a perfect system and it is not at any auction house. To better serve our absentee bidders, we have what's referred to as a "plus 1 bid" and on phone bids a "cover-me bid". You should definitely read about both of these and consider using them to help insure your participation. We will do everything in our power to execute your bids properly, however, in the event of an error of omission, or failure to properly execute absentee bids, the Auctioneer shall not be held liable.

2. All absentee bids must be accompanied by a 20% deposit, which will be refunded immediately after auction if your bid is unsuccessful. If your bid is successful, your 20% deposit will be applied to the purchase price and the balance due upon presentation of our bill. If time does not permit the physical 20% deposit, you may confirm your bid by your Visa or MasterCard. Should you provide a credit card number, the only way that we would use your credit card number is if you default on payment, then we would bill your account for the amount due.

3. To execute an absentee bid, fill out the enclosed form, listing catalogue number, description and your top bid price (not including the buyers premium). Send this together with your deposit as soon as possible. If your bids are sent seven days or less prior to the auction, you should call our offices three days prior to the auction, to confirm that we have received your bids. If they have not been received at that point in time, you should submit your bids over the telephone.

4. Bids are handled in a competitive manner by our bookkeeper who bids on your behalf in an attempt to buy the object for less than your top bid. If your bid is the only bid on a lot she will not start bidding, she will wait until the audience opens the bid and then compete with them until she has either won the lot or it has gone beyond her limit. It is therefore possible sometimes for you to buy a lot well under your top bid. If two or more bids are received on the same item from different people, the bidding will open at the next logical raise above the second highest bid. If two absentee bids are received with the exact same amount, the first one received will take precedence.

5. All bids must be in even dollar amounts. Bids in fractions of dollars or odd amounts will be considered the next lower even dollar amount. The minimum bid increment is usually 10% of the last bid. Therefore, if someone leaves a bid of $100.50 we will automatically round it off to $100. If you should leave a bid of $103 we will round it off to $100.

6. Open bids or bids with no set top amount or orders to just simply buy the lot, cannot be accepted by us. You must have a definite top limit before we can execute your bid. Alternatives to this are as follows:

A. To bid over the telephone. Lot must be worth $500+ each. This can be done by simply sending a 20% deposit for what you might anticipate to bid on the object. This will bind whatever bid you wish to bid over the telephone. If you decide to bid twice that figure, it is perfectly all right, as long as we have the deposit in hand. Arrangements to bid by telephone must be made by 5:00pm of the day prior to the sale date of the auction and will not be accepted the day of the auction. (NOTE: There are only a few telephone lines into the auction hall and phone bids will be handled on a first come, first serve basis.)

B. Some bidders concerned that their lot might just go for one bid above their top limit, leave a top bid plus one bid. This works as follows: The top bid submitted might be $1,000, but not wishing to lose the lot for simply one more bid, the plus one bid allows the bookkeeper to bid one more time on your behalf. Generally a bid increment is 10%, so if you left a $1,000 bid plus 1 it would allow her to go $1,000 plus 100. If you said $1,000 plus 2 bids that would mean $1,000 plus $200. (NOTE: One possible problem that occasionally arises with absentee bids is when someone in the audience bids exactly the amount which you specify is your limit. In such a case, we would not go one extra bid unless your bid sheet indicates plus one bid.)

7. NOTIFICATION OF SUCCESS: Only successful bidders are contacted. A written bill is usually sent within three (3) working days after the auction. The bill will be accompanied by shipping information. Unsuccessful bidders are not contacted. PHONE INQUIRIES regarding your success cannot be answered until the second business day after the auction. It takes us a full day to unpack, reset our offices and printout the computer reports.

8. SHIPPING: If you are a successful bidder, a bill will be sent shortly after the auction. This bill must be paid upon receipt. Purchasers should indicate their desired method of shipment if such is necessary. We will be pleased to assist you by shipping items which you purchase. A charge for this service includes labor, packing materials, shipping and insurance. All shipping charges must be paid for in advance. Please Note: Certified check, or wire transfers or any other form of guaranteed funds will expedite shipping. Shipping can take 14 to 21 days after payment is received (depending upon gallery work load).

9. The Shipping Department may decline to execute instructions to ship items, which are too large or too fragile to be shipped by common carrier. In such cases, the only way we can ship these special items is by way of a letter from the buyer releasing us from the responsibility of any damage that might occur in shipping.